Living constructively, adapting, and outwitting the odds

Category Archives: adaptation

With the kind consent of the friend mentioned, I post the following exercise in “radical presence”, or staying sane in spite of the craziness… Bubbles of thoughts are rising through the viscidity of my mind, drifting from side to side, now tending one way, now tending another. Feels like a relapse of … Continue reading →

Guess what? Everything’s up in the air, except me. But don’t worry, it’ll work out. And that, folks, is how you know I’m back in the saddle. I’m not naturally a nervous person, but the years of system and systematic abuse on top of the fried central nervous system left me … Continue reading →

I have written about dealing with careless, ignorant, detached, and outright bad doctors, which is needful and — given the many problematic layers of living with chronic, intransigent pain — appropriate. However, I’m also a nurse, and I really do see things from both sides. You’re both right. Having said that, I … Continue reading →

It’s been a crazy winter, even for New England. Those of you with pain syndromes know what that means: changeful weather means unstable pain neurology which means more pain and less brain. I’m so much more stable here in other ways that I found it frustrating to be soooooo daffy. … Continue reading →

This disease, like time and life, dips and dances but tends to go in one direction. As long as it doesn’t outrun my ability to adapt and amuse, I can put up with that. After all, we’re all born with a one-way ticket, and sooner or later we have to … Continue reading →

Interesting week here. A dear friend is embroiled in one of those ghastly legal tangles where the vultures are rigged to win. I’m the key defense witness. This comes up later. This whole winter, I’ve been basking — simply basking! — in the sheer delight of being safe, sheltered, warm, … Continue reading →

Updated to reflect much experimentation and the final recipe, Dec 16, 2016 We forget that tooth pain is nerve pain. There are big fat nerves going right up into every one of those 30-odd things in your head. I have sensitive teeth, related to the fact that I have CRPS, … Continue reading →

Chronic pain patients are often called Difficult Patients, when the casual cruelty and reflexive contempt of medicine and the ignorance of other people grates too hard against our increasingly impaired ability to compensate and deal with it as calmly and “rationally” as we used to. I’m less and less certain … Continue reading →

On average, it takes 2-5 days to adjust to a change in the weather. This is part of the fun and excitement of CRPS, dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, and all those lovely dysregulating diseases of pain and neurological shenanigans. New Englanders like to say, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait … Continue reading →